This book was very interesting and I'll keep in mind for future coverage! Thank you! This book was very interesting and I'll keep in mind for future coverage! Thank you!

First off I want to tell you I did not like this book, but I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about 72-year old Vesta and how living in solitude led her to believing she has discovered a murder but in actuality she’s bonkers. And then I started thinking about the title Death in Her Hands. After reading the book it has an entirely different meaning than before. I’ll be pondering what is read and what is a figment of Vesta’s imagination for some time to come. Publishers Weekly calls it “disorienting” and I couldn’t agree more.

First line: Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn’t me. Here is her dead body.

Summary: Vesta, a seventy-two year old lady, is walking her dog through the woods when she finds a note about Magda. She is dead. But there is no body. Vesta is intrigued by the note. She is sure that she is smart enough to figure out who killed Magda.

My Thoughts: I was not sure how I felt about this when I started it and even after I finished it. It was just intriguing enough to keep reading but I never knew what was truly going on. Vesta is a solitary old woman who decides to solve a mystery. She knows no one in the area so she just makes up names and characteristics of the suspects. Everything plays out in her head. And over time things start to change. Her remembrances change. Her views on reality change. I just do not know what I just read. It did keep me reading until the end but I was disappointed in its ending.

FYI: It was a 3 star book until the ending.

Ottessa Moshfegh is an author I will read absolutely anything they publish. Real characters with real lives and real struggles...not idealized versions we hope to see ourselves in. As always, this author creates a world that compels readers along.

An unreliable main character, a murder that might be real (or maybe not), and the workings of a mind unravelling: you just gotta love Moshfegh's ability to create a world full of strangeness and mystery.

Maybe I just didn’t understand this book, or maybe the book didn’t hit the mark. Not quite sure which. What began as an intriguing premise (lonely older woman discovers a note in the woods about a woman named Magda whose body has been disposed of...but there’s no body) quickly deteriorated into the delusions of a...madwoman? Woman with dementia? Alcoholic towards the end? Unclear, but an unreliable narrator, that’s for sure. Essentially you’re on a trip in this lady’s stream of consciousness, which could be cool even if it’s not what I signed up for based on the description...but even once I was on board with this new idea, it turns out to be a letdown. She’s hopelessly boring, fat-phobic (which honestly made her a little more interesting as a character), and her memories/complaints about her late husband fall on deaf ears of readers who just don’t care enough to listen (or was that just me?). The writing itself was beautiful, but the complete lack of plot made it difficult to stay engaged. I was constantly yearning for SOMETHING to happen, and certainly the book made me think (I was constantly recalculating what the explanation of this book could be as new information surfaced), but ultimately my theorizing was fruitless because the book itself never wraps up. I thought once other characters began being introduced things might take off, but even then, we aren’t given any satisfaction of answers (or even hinting!) at an explanation. The ending is terribly disappointing (Seriously? You had to go for the dog?) and makes me wonder why I spent so much time trying to search for answers when I received nothing in return. A well-written book with a dud for a storyline (but something that could’ve been great!). This fell flat for me, but I really wish it hadn’t!! 2/5

Thank you to NetGalley and The Penguin Press for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Wonderful twist on the unreliable narrator and the power of the mind to entertain. A good read for time of Covid -19 with everyone spending more time in our own minds.

In Ottessa Moshfegh's Death in Her Hands, we follow an older woman as she navigates the last phase of her life after her husband passes away. She moves to a secluded old cabin in a new town, gets a dog, and tries to settle into new routines. One day she finds a suspicious note in the woods around her house discussing a potential murder, and she spirals into a fantastical mission to discover the murderer. The concept of this book is fascinating, and Moshfeg's talent is obvious throughout, but unfortunately, Death in Her Hands was exhausting to read. Readers are stuck in the head of a grouchy, fatphobic, misogynistic old woman who can't stop fixating on a made-up murder she created. The only thing interesting about this book is that the lines between reality and fantasy are blurred. Readers can never quite tell what is actually happening and what is being devised by the narrator. Death in Her Hands masquerades as a murder mystery, but it quickly becomes clear that it is a series of meditations on death. This again sounds enticing, but we have to suffer through the narrator's shaming of others, her bigotry, and her justification of sexual assault and misconduct. The end is surely the best part, but I won't spoint that for you.

The novel Death in Her Hands written by Ottessa Moshfegh begins with the following lines: “Her name is Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn’t me. Here is her dead body.” The words are written scribbled on a spiral notebook page and found in the nearby woods by the book’s main character, 72-year old newly widowed, Vesta Gul. The rest of the book unspools as Gul accompanied by her trusty companion and dog, Charlie intends to ascertain who Magda is and more importantly what happened to her. Most of the story reflects Gul’s innermost thoughts as she is a solitary, friendless loner who recently moved to the woods from the town of Levant after her husband, Walter, a professor, passed away. Moshfegh has created a solitary loner perhaps to illuminate the inner sanctum of the character, as the book is more about Vesta’s “mindspace” (as she calls her thinking self in the story) and less about the actions of the story.

I will admit that I love a good story that dwells on the innermost thoughts, the psychology of a character. Years ago, in graduate school I read my first Henry James novel, A Portrait of a Lady and it remains my favorite James novel to this day. Like Isabel Archer who dwells with the conundrum of finding her own way in the world or taking the traditional route by marrying one of her many suitors, Moshfegh’s protagonist also has a dilemma to ruminate over---to find out who killed Magda and determine who Magda is. I wasn’t actually sure that this book was for me, despite being drawn into Vesta’s inner world immediately. Vesta is a lonely soul who spends her days with her beloved pooch and putters around her garden when weather allows. Vesta is intent on finding out who Magda is, but is on the verge of unspooling herself. Moshfegh has done a solid job with the character development but I only wished for a bit more action propelling this one forward.

Honestly, I haven’t had a chance to read this. The distribution copy that I downloaded was extremely difficult to read, constantly being broken up by the phrase “not for distribution” placed in random lines on every page.

I have really enjoyed Ottessa Moshfegh’s books, but I will wait until I can receive my own legible copy to dive in.

I was not a fan of this book. It was described as fitting in the mystery/thriller genre, but I found it to offer none of the associated thrills of this category. The book felt like it was filled with countless hypotheticals and very little actual story to follow. I prefer my mysteries to have a storyline that can be followed and allow readers to reasonably hypothesize about the ending. I could not do that with this novel. 2/5 ⭐️.

this being my first Ottessa Moshfegh and hearing so many good things about her other books I really wanted to love it and was looking forward to reading it.... but this book just didn't do it for me.
being a short book I really thought I could read this in a day but I felt so bored reading it that I kept putting it down.
It just wasn't for me and hopefully others love it.

We join a woman in this story that is half stream-of-consciousness, half fugue state as she tries to figure out the significance of a paper she finds in the woods. I’m not quite sure what to make of this one, on the whole. Emphatically not recommended for dog people.

Ottessa Moshfegh’s new novel Death in Her Hands is another winner from the author of My Year of Rest and Relaxation. It centers around our narrator Vesta Gul who finds a note on a walk in the woods with the words, “Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her.” The rest of the novel the Vesta literally creates her own world of what happened Magda and if Magda really exists. Throughout the novel we meet characters that the narrator turns into suspects or builds a story about their possible lives. What I loved about this novel and why it’s perfect for books clubs and reading groups is that what one person can get from the novel someone else may get a totally idea of what the novel means. I’d love to be a fly on the wall in these discussions. I read the book in one sitting. You truly want to find out what happened to the Magda and what happened to Vesta that brought her to this remote place and did something happen to her too. It certainly will be on everybody’s top 10 must read summer books!

Death in Her Hands

A dark and haunting novel of a woman on the edge of reality.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

SUMMARY

“Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn’t me. Here is her dead body”

A seventy-two year old widow finds this sinister note on her morning walk through the birch trees near her cabin. It was written in blue ink on a page of lined paper from a spiral notebook and was weighted down by black rocks. There is no body, but our narrator, Vesta is shaken and determined to create a personification for Magda and find her killer. Her tenaciousness soon turns to an obsession as she invents a list of suspects and motives for the murder. Somehow, with her imagination running wild, her suppositions just might have found some traction. But then Charlie her beloved dog goes missing.

REVIEW
DEATH IN HER HANDS is a haunting atmospheric tale of a self-isolating woman who is losing touch with community, reality and herself. Vesta lives in a remote cabin on a lake all by herself with only Charlie for company,. She has no phone, an unreliable car and little desire to interact with anyone other than Charlie. The note gives her a purpose and her research on how to solve a murder and her imagination serve her well.

The writing is good, and the loneliness, tension and angst throughout the book is highly perceptible. Vesta’s character, while frustrating at times was well developed. The story, a little obtuse for my liking is perhaps a metaphor for crime writing. The ending however, morphes into something totally unexpected and leaves you questioning your own grip on reality.

This was my first novel by author Ottessa Moshfegh. Her debut novel, Eileen (2015), won the Hemingway Foundation/ PEN Award was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, it was a fiction finalist for the National Books Critics Circle award.

Thanks to Netgalley for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Publisher Penguin Press
Published June 23, 2020
Review www.bluestockingreviews.com

The interesting premise, especially the elderly protagonist, was what intrigued me and drew me in but that interest wasn't sustained throughout.

While the thriller aspect kept the pacing up throughout, the lack of plot really had me wondering when it was going to get interesting or connected. There were several very obvious steps I would have thought Vesta would take after she finds the note and in her ensuing "investigation" but she never does and no explicit reason for her illogical approach is given.

Because its clear we can't trust Vesta as a narrator and character I thought this would culminate into a big plot point but it didn't. I felt this had a lot of promise and good "bones" but lacked clarity in the execution and commitment to a fleshed out plot with nuance.

For a stream-of-thought type novel, this one manages to create tension and suspense out of almost nothing. As the main character rambles on, she creates fully realized characters out of a short note she finds in the woods. I loved the author's use of words and her sly humor, but the way she ended her novel has left me wondering if I truly understood what she intended. I need Cliff Notes!

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC to read and review.

Death in Her Hands manages to be both frustrating and fascinating--a difficult read that asks a lot of the reader, but is rewarding in that it makes you think and shows you just how powerful novels can be. In a time where comfort reads are everywhere, Death in Her Hands will not comfort you. It isn't here to do that. It's here to make you look. To make you think. It's a demanding but weighty book. Recommended.

This book was so different than any book I've ever read. It was dark, twisted and comedic (in all the right places, but I could have used more...but that's personal preference.). I loved the premise of this cute elderly woman trying to find a murderer in the beginning and then finishing the book with a very what-did-I-just-read reaction. Moshfegh has such a unique and hard-to-describe style, that I'm still sorting out my feelings.

Death in Her Hands is (no surprises here, coming as it does from the singular mind of Ottessa Moshfegh) weirdly experimental and oddly affecting. Whereas Moshfegh's previous bestsellers (Eileen and My Year of Rest and Relaxation) used black humour and uncomfortably unmentionable material to explore the uninhibited inner minds of young women, in this outing the protagonist is 72-year-old Vesta Gul – a new widow, recently transplanted to a remote cabin in the woods in an unfamiliar state – and the reader is trapped in Vesta's claustrophobic “mindspace” as she finds herself working through an apparent murder mystery. This book seems like one thing, veers off into an entirely different direction, and ends up exposing the lifetime of hurts that created this forgotten old woman's obsessive interiority. Part creepshow, part whodunit, with layers of irony you can feel in your fillings, I was left with an overwhelming empathy and sadness for all the Vestas out there; what Moshfegh's previous books exposed about the inner lives of young women, Death in Her Hands does for an elderly woman looking back on her life, and if you have any interest in a short, offbeat, and disquieting journey, I'd recommend visiting with Vesta in her cabin by the lake